An Empty Tin Can's Pain
by Cookie Master's Apprentice
Summary: Alphonse thought that the advantage he had when he was a bodiless armor was that nothing will be able to give him pain. He was wrong. Pain has no boundary. It touches everyone. Short drabble, not much spoiler except if you're a total newbie. T for safety.


_Hello, guys. The lazy Apprentice is back, and this time with a one-shot featuring Ed and Al while she's supposed to be working on _Rewinded Time_. But don't worry; my greatest FMA story so far is on its way to be updated. Try it out and leave a review, PLEASE! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything that's crucial in this story. It belongs to Arakawa-sensei._

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Alphonse Elric had assured himself when he was trapped in the armor that at the very least, he was safe from pain. After all, what harm could anybody do to an empty lump of steel that cannot feel, sleep or eat?

Three years later, the ten-year-old found he was dead wrong.

The first time he experienced crucial pain was when Edward, his stupid, fluffy-headed older brother offered his own life up to Scar, a murderer, in exchange for his own. He was immobilized at that time, a leg and half of his armor gone, and all he could do was shouting desperately for Edward to run, for Scar to stop, which neither of them will do. To lay there helpless, to watch his only relative left being murder in front of you had hurt so bad, Alphonse assumed that's how it feels when somebody stab your guts with a knife and twist it several times, then times that by one hundred and that will describe how he felt perfectly.

The second was when Barry the Chopper had informed him that he might be fake, that he was merely a creation with the same memories as "Alphonse Elric", that he wasn't human. The very idea that Ed had lied to him all these years hurt the fourteen-year-old more than anything else he could think of. Edward? Lie to him? How could he? But if what Barry said was right, then he had a right to lie to Alphonse.

But that wasn't all. When Alphonse had confronted Edward in the hospital and was yelling at him, he had still seen past his rage and saw the momentary but true and boundless hurt in Edward's eyes, and that pain both shamed and made his imaginary stomach wrench, even more than when Barry broke the possible truth to him. But Edward had gone steely again before Alphonse's angry mind could calm down, and he'd simply said, "I see" and disappeared to the rooftop.

The matter was solved with Winry (her wrench has all the credits, though) and they were brothers again. Alphonse could not believe how much relief he had felt when he found out that he really _was_ human.

No, it wasn't that. It was because he realized Edward had not lie. As they recalled their childhood on that hospital rooftop, Alphonse reminded himself sternly never to go trust strangers or enemies on a whim again. He told himself that he knew Edward best, and nobody but him could tell exactly what Edward would and would dare to do. Not even Mustang knows Ed's limits.

And he shouldn't go yelling those lies and silly questions to Edward either, he realized. He'd seen, for the first time, how much his brother valued his trust, and he was _not_ about to take it back. Ever.

The third – no, this happened too much to count – was when he spent those sleepless nights, not being able to catch a wink due to his armor, being pulled from his thoughts by his brother's thrashing and screaming as Edward once again relived That Night, when the tears that Edward would never shed during another's present went gushing down the pale cheeks that were made even more frighteningly pale with the moonlight filtering through their hotel room's window. Alphonse always woke Edward up and let him cry for awhile, running an unfeeling hand through the soft-looking blond hair of his brother, his heart feeling like it would burst, but that was silly, because he had no physical heart.

Alphonse had felt real, extreme pain for a total of two times in his young life ever since he'd been bound to the armor, but as Izumi Curtis proved to him when they were under her teaching, pain teaches much, much better than mere books and records. Pain teaches you how to avoid getting hurt the same way again.

Oh, yes, Alphonse had learned what could cause him pain, and how to guard himself against more pain like that. He and his brother both.

He learned it one midsummer night, as they rode the train to complete "another completely pointless mission from that lunatic Mustang", as Edward would put it, Alphonse sat awake watching his pale face, the bags under his eyes that told a story of what Edward did at nights. His brother's pain was his own, he realized as he focused on the temporarily-peaceful face Edward always wielded when he was asleep.

So there was only one way to not feel pain again, Alphonse reasoned.

He had to protect what is dear to him.

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